All of the technology and business people I regularly talk to keep telling me cloud computing. But what is it, what does it really mean for business and what are the monetary and physical upsides?
Cloud means Internet. The computing occurs on the Internet – instead of the software you use running on your computer, it runs somewhere on the Internet on a server located in a data centre commonly staffed by people who are experts in managing technology. This type of “cloud” software is commonly known as “on demand” or Software as a Service (SaaS).
Some successful examples of well established Software as a Service are:
Web based CRM Software (Customer Relationship Management) – Salesforce.com pricing approximately $9 per user/month.
Small business management and accounting software (small business ERP) – Salesorder.com pricing $45 per user/month.
Medium sized business ERP software – NetSuite pricing around $99 per user/month.
There are a number of significant benefits for every business here:
Time, cost savings and reliability
Businesses don’t require a permanent information technology professional to help them procure, commission and maintain the systems platform thus reducing operating costs and time to implement. The burden of continuosly backing up data is removed as this is normally an inherent feature of the “cloud” software. Cloud software “operators” almost always have stand by systems that can be deployed in instantly should a major failure occur.
Easier selection and wider choice
Using a web browser, businesses now have 24/7 access to a huge range of applications they can in most cases immediately evaluate and swiftly determine if the software suits their needs at zero cost. This makes it effective for employees in large businesses to by pass the usual information technology buying processes and easily evaluate and prove their business case.
Superior user experience
The web provides instant feedback to software vendors and has fuelled substantial progress in user interface design resulting in more intuitive systems in turn decreasing learning times and improving user satisfaction. This of course means faster adoption and better productivity.
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